Supreme Court white paper outlines AI ethics in judiciary

It matters to citizens as it outlines the ethical principles, risks, and recommended guidelines for the responsible use of AI in the legal system.

Who it concerns: The Supreme Court of India, the Centre for Research and Planning (CRP), the judiciary, lawyers, law clerks, and the general public affected by judicial processes.

What the document says

• The document defines AI as computational techniques enabling machines to perform tasks dependent on human cognitive faculties.
• It provides a global overview of AI frameworks and tools used in judicial systems in countries including the US, UK, EU, China, and Singapore.
• It details specific AI initiatives in the Indian judiciary, including SUPACE, SUVAS, TERES (AI-based transcription), and LegRAA (Legal Research Analysis Assistant).
• It identifies risks associated with AI in the judiciary, such as overreliance on unverified outputs, fabrication of cases (hallucination), evidence tampering, algorithmic bias, and breach of confidentiality.
• It proposes core ethical principles for AI use, including 'Human in the Loop', accuracy and verification, and fairness and bias prevention.
• It recommends institutional safeguards such as establishing AI Ethics Committees within courts, creating in-house AI tools, and implementing disclosure requirements.
• It provides suggestive guidelines for the responsible use of AI for lawyers and law clerks.

Also in the document

• The white paper was prepared with the support of the Chief Justice of India, Justice B.R. Gavai, and the Secretary General of the Supreme Court of India.
• The authors include Dr. Anurag Bhaskar, Director-cum-Additional Registrar of CRP, and several other consultants and research associates from CRP.
• The document acknowledges the efforts of Mr. Rajesh Ranjan, former Consultant (Research), CRP, for preparing the initial draft.